We love reading poetry on Hanukkah. Have you ever thought you could exchange poems instead of gifts? That’s what we do on Hanukkah. We exchange poems instead of gifts.
Reading poetry on Hanukkah
I have something of a love hate relationship with poetry. Reading poetry is good for your brain, I love evocative writing. Trying to understand a poem helps slow you down, but I struggle to make time to actually read poetry.
When I have time to read for fun, I like fast-paced novels, compelling memoirs, and meaningful nonfiction. I have some favorite poets, like Emily Dickinson, ee cummings, Langston Hughes, Alice Walker, Mary Oliver, and Robert Frost. But I don’t spend a lot of time reading them.
Except in the winter.
In our family we celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah. So on Hanukkah we don’t give gifts. Instead we spend time reading poetry on Hanukkah. We eat latkes with homemade applesauce and yogurt and we exchange poems instead of gifts. We gather up all our poetry books, bring them to the table, and take turns reading our favorite poems out loud.
On each night of Hanukkah we enjoy exchanging poems instead of giving gifts. We love reading poetry on Hanukkah. Photo courtesy of Pixabay.
Reading poetry on Hanukkah: Exchange poems instead of gifts
My kids have memorized many poems over the years, partly because of our holiday tradition of reading poems out loud.
This poem has generated furrowed brows and interesting conversations in our house.
See what your children make of it:
On a dark, dark day in the middle of the night, two dead boys got up to fight.
Back to back they faced each other, drew their swords and shot each other.
A deaf policeman, who heard the noise, ran and shot the two dead boys.
If you don’t believe my story’s true, ask the blind man. He saw it too.
Our family’s favorite books of poems for reading poetry on Hanukkah include:
Talking Like the Rain by Jane Dolan. The illustrations by Jane Dyer are as wonderful and beautiful as the poems themselves.
Everything On It by Shel Silverstein: these poems are so much fun, and lend themselves to being read and recited over and over again.
The Poetry of Robert Frost: I got this as a gift for my high school graduation from my soccer coach, who has remained a lifelong friend. This is a book I cherish and go back to again and again.
(Note to parents with children of all ages: a beautiful, hardcover poetry book makes an excellent graduation gift. Reading poetry on Hanukkah and exchanging poems instead of gifts is a tradition to pass down from generation to generation.)
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First published: May 9, 2011
Updated: June 13, 2026
Anything that is thought provoking, even if nonesensical, is good. And challenging the brain to memorize things is also good. I think poems are an important part of learning and I wish schools would go back to learning and memorizing poems.
Once in the forest as black as pitch
My brother met a wicked old witch!
The witch croaked, “I’m glad to meecha!”
You’re just in time for me to eatcha!”
But my brother didn’t fraid ol’ worry.
He didn’t turn his back and scurry.
Instead, he gave his sailor pants a hitch-up
And then he quietly ate the witch-up!
But if he had acted cowardly, wobbly,
The witch would have eaten him up, probably.
– Ogden Nash (as I learned it 43 years ago)
I think the line is “My brother didn’t fret or worry”
I had an lp (!?) of Peter Ustenov reciting poems of Ogden Nash on one side and The Nutcracker Suite on the other. It was called “Between Birthdays”
I had this same album! To this day those poems & playing that album are among my fondest childhood memories!
Sorry to bump this decade-old thread, but I learned this poem from my grandmother very nearly as you wrote it. I’ve been searching for it to read at her funeral and this seems to be the only place on the whole internet with the “correct” words! It seems our version is a modification of “Adventures of Isabel.”
If you read this: Where did you learn this version? From the Nutcracker record the other person mentioned? Thank you!
That Ogden Nash reminds me of one of our favorites, Peter, called “I Eat Kids Yum Yum.” By Dennis Lee. You can watch the girls performing it here:
http://mothering.com/jennifermargulis/hanukkah/the-fourth-night-of-hanukkah-i-eat-kids-yum-yum
Here’s how it goes:
I EAT KIDS YUM YUM!
A child went out one day.
She only went to play.
A mighty monster came along
And sang its might monster song:
“I EAT KIDS YUM YUM!
I STUFF THEM DOWN MY TUM.
I ONLY LEAVE THE TEETH AND CLOTHES.
(I SPECIALLY LIKE THE TOES.)”
The child was not amused.
She stood there and refused.
Then with a skip and a little twirl
She sang the song of a hungry girl:
“I EAT MONSTERS BURP!
THEY MAKE ME SQUEAL AND SLURP.
IT’S TIME TO CHOMP AND TAKE A CHEW–
AND WHAT I’ll CHEW IS YOU!”
The monster ran like that!
It didn’t stop to chat.
(The child went skipping home again
And ate her brother’s model train.)
And I agree that memorizing poetry is good for developing brains. In Hesperus’s Waldorf school they do a lot of memorization but in the public schools they almost never read poetry and seldom learn anything by heart…
Yes!
I had the Peter Ustinov Birthday album as well!
“My birthdays come so far apart
It’s hard to tell when they might start.
It’s worse than waiting for a bus.
At times I used to fret and fuss!
But now and then, when impatience vex
Between one birthday and the next
I think of all that I have seen
That keeps on happening in between.
The sounds I’ve heard
The things I’ve done
Make my unbirthdays not su un.”